Zine
The term “zine” was coined in the early 1940’s, and describes a type of self-published magazine created by either a small group or even a single person. They were created to cover topics and subjects that mainstream magazines wouldn’t cover, from politics and social theory to poetry and art. These zines were much more individualized than mainstream journalism, and were often printed fewer than 100 times per edition. This creates a personal connection between the writer and reader, something that magazines were not (and still are not) capable of doing. In our zine creation group, we planned to do something very similar to what the artists and writers did then, with the option of making a cyanotype if the students chose to.
The first step towards creating the zines was the preparation. Students planned out their zine and collected the necessary materials before it could be created. The zine had to have a theme or story in it, although that message was completely up to the students to create.
Once the students had their idea, they could move on to production. The variety of different styles and techniques shows tribute to the diverse interests of the students in the class. Some students used cyanotyping to create images for their zine, some created their zine on a single 8.5x11 inch sheet of paper, and some even created a collage, with several small drawings put together to make a final product.
With the compositions created, the sheets were scanned and printed. Each copy was individually cut and folded; In this case, each student had 50 sheets of paper that had to be crafted by hand to get their final product. The stories varied from student to student, ranging from haunted Kirksville to stories of the red squirrels we all know and love here at Truman State University. Although it may have been a lot of work to fold each and every zine individually, it adds a personal connection between the author and every copy that was created.
The next step was distribution. The zines were distributed to friends, professors, around Kirksville, the library, and even strangers. Distributing the zines to anyone and everyone is important in order to get their message beyond the limited scope of the group and into the community as a whole. They may be harder to distribute and show to the public when compared to other projects, but the connection and personality that can be shared is unlike any other. You can tell that the students all loved to create art and spread their message to the public. The passion and love for the arts that each and every student shared is evident in their work, as each zine has a unique and personal story to tell.
Please scroll through the images below to see the individual zines. Each one of these can be folded into a small booklet, feel free to print out your own copy.
